Curious Creature

Follwing are two emails I received one day about a month ago.    Names, etc. have been sanitized to protect the guilty.   Enjoy.

The opening shot

All,

I have found that it is time for me to once again remind everyone to remove the grammatically incorrect and unnecessary “and/or” construction from use throughout ….  Sorry, but I’ll blame being a stickler on my Jesuit education!  I’ve recently seen “and/or” slip into … publications again after an absence of several years.  It seems as though it’s like a virus that never really goes away.  While this might seem like a quite minor issue, it’s something that we can easily correct and our members and our customers will appreciate the fact that we care even about the small details of our work.

“And/or” basically shows that writers don’t really know what they mean and they’re trying to cover up that fact.  They’re being sloppy.

Acceptable:

1.  “and.”  Example. Charlotte and I will speak at the meeting.  This means that both of us will speak.

2.  “or.”  Example:  Charlotte or I will speak at the meeting.  This means that both may speak. It also means that only one of us might speak.  It intentionally leaves the situation ambiguous.

3.  “either….or.”  Example:  Either Charlotte or I will speak at the meeting.  This means that one of us will speak but it rules out both of us speaking.

So, please correctly use our language and avoid trendy (and sloppy) constructions.

Thanks, …

The Finishing Salvo

Hi all,

<name removed>’s quite proper note was prompted by my unfortunate use in an e-mail of the term that one commentator has called “that befuddling, nameless thing, that Janus-faced verbal monstrosity.”

To salve my professional conscience, please allow me to note the following in his jeremiad:

1. excessively tentative phrasing (e.g., “It seems as though it’s like”);
2. three compound sentences punctuated insufficiently; and
3. a draconian sense of what constitutes trendiness. “And/or” arose in the legal discourse of the nineteenth century. I realize that this is practically yesterday on the Jesuitical timescale, but the term’s vintage is scarcely comparable to that of, say, “impact” (as a verb) or “a’ight.”

To be more positive, I do admire an author who knows the difference between “may” and “might” and who appreciates that good use of grammar is next to godliness.

Precisely and / or sincerely,

…

I’ve got something hacking on my corn. I suspect it’s the squirrels as they should be the only thing that can get over the fencing I have around the corn without bringing down the fence. I know its not some kind of bug…the damage looks like its from teeth and everything is shredded.

Today I went out and bought some Bobbex-R to spray on the corn in the hopes that it will keep the critters away. The stuff certainly isn’t cheap so I hope it does work. By the smell I’m sure it will

You hear the whispers coming out of co-workers, hushed tones with odd inflections repeating words like ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘customer service’. Is this some weird conversation with a loved one? Then it dawns on you that your co-worker is busy navigating the world of a voice-recognition-based phone system.

Almost everyone has used one of these systems by now. Many companies are using them these days and the trend seems to be moving away from number-based (”please hit 1 if you require immediate medical attention”) to voice-recognition-based (”please say yes if you require immediate medical attention”) phone menu navigation systems. The question is why?

There is nothing inherently better about these systems and I’d argue that in fact they are worse. In most cases hitting a number on the keypad would be quicker. In all cases it is certainly not as disruptive as navigating a voice-based menu system. I suppose there is one situation in which a voice-based system could be better and that would be a menu that gets very deep with options.

With a voice-based system it would probably be easier to skip levels of the menu depending on what the person is saying. Something like “pay my bill” could certainly save time if the keypad-based option required inputting more than 2 numbers to navigate down in to the menu system. In my experience with these systems though I am not seeing this savings.

Most of the systems have voice input that is closely tied to menus that would be equivalent to the keypad-based systems. I just don’t see the savings in time and see a lot more aggravation. I have had, on more than one occassion, had to repeat myself multiple times to be understood. Higher levels of background noise really mess with the voice recognition. In some instances I have even been transferred to a human because the voice recognition can’t understand what I’m saying.

Keep the keypad-based systems guys. They are the less annoying option.

I just finished taking a look at the Pickens Plan and it has me scratching my head.

It states:

We currently use natural gas to produce 22% of our electricity. Harnessing the power of wind to generate electricity will give us the flexibility to shift natural gas away from electricity generation and put it to use as a transportation fuel — reducing our dependence on foreign oil by more than one-third.

Why would we want to build the infrastructure to support natural gas-powered vehicles? Keep the natural gas as the power station where it belongs. The infrastructure to support electric vehicles has been in places for ages now and electric vehicles would account for the vast majority of driving that people do.

The answer is staring us in the face. Why do we keep ignoring it?

I still can not understand why people flock to the Taste of Chicago on July 3rd every year.   And every year the crowds seem to get larger.  Oh sure I understand that there is a fantastic fireworks display there every year.  In fact I used to enjoy it myself for quite a few years when I lived in the city.  But maybe it’s as I get older I call in to question people’s sanity when I see the crowds of people heading to the lakefront every July 3rd.

I’ll relate a little story of my own.  About 10 years ago a friend and I went to the Taste of Chicago both for  the food and for the fireworks.   We were hanging out in the area around Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park waiting for the fireworks to start.   It seemed like a good area to watch the display.  Unlike most of the areas right down by the lakefront there was actually some room to move around.   On the 3rd people are generally packed in like sardines in a can, there is absolutely no room to move.

A little while into the fireworks we heard a big roar behind us.   I turned around and got a quick glimpse of a mass of people rushing toward us.  I didn’t get much more than a quick look because at that point the crowd had reached us and I was jammed into a moving wall of people.   I was actually physically picked up off my feet and moved about 30 feet as the people kept stampeding forward trying to get away from whatever it was that had caused the stampede in the first place.  I had heard about situations like this.  I had just never been in one and never want to be in one again.

After it was all over people’s belongs were scattered all over the place and I saw several very small children who were separated from their families screaming and crying.  I can’t say that I felt any better than those kids did.  My nerves were jangled (in fact for a few days) and my friend and I got out of there as quickly as we could.   Unfortunately for me I was so nervous and walking so quickly that on the way out I stepped on a flattened aluminum can that was sitting in a pool of slick goo that is always on the streets and sidewalks during the Taste.  I fell flat on my back to the chorus of laughs coming from some group of drunk fools that witnessed my fall.  I didn’t care too much though…I just wanted to get the hell out of there.

Turns out that members of two rival gangs decided to mix it up close to the area where my friend and I were standing.  Guns and knives were brought out and people started panicking.   Apparently the years haven’t changed much.  I heard a woman call in to the John Williams Show on WGN radio this morning talking about a similar situation.

According to the story she and her boyfriend chose this past July 3rd to make their first visit to the Taste of Chicago and brought some friends that were in town from Sacramento, CA.  She pointed out the crowds, the being packed in so tight you could barely move, the claustrophobia from being in that situation, all of these things being familiar to anyone who has been to this festival on that particular day.   She then talked about how some gang-bangers decided to start mixing it up and caused another stampede.  She and her companions were caught in a bad situation and she said she never wanted to go there again.

I’m not sure what they can do about it.  It isn’t as if you can count people coming in to that area and then just block it off.  I certainly will never go there again on July 3rd.  It took years for me to go back even on another day but I will refuse to ever go again on a day when it is that packed full of people.  It isn’t fun.  It most certainly is dangerous.  The caller to the radio show suggested that they just cancel it.  Fat chance since it’s such a huge money maker.

The best bet is just to avoid it and go during lunch during the week.  It certainly is more accessible then.  But it still sucks.

This is unconscionable. Drill for oil anywhere we want and forget the consequences but damn we really need to make sure those solar installations don’t degrade the environment.

On the one hand I can understand this. I’d rather have good studies done for sighting and placement purposes but 2 years??? And in the meantime they don’t want to apply the same standards to say, ANWR. It’s nuts.

Songs because the video is multiple songs sung by Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim but the song I want to bring attention to is the “Girl From Ipanema”.  This is a clip from Sinatra’s 1967 television special A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim when the Bossa nova craze in the United States was going full-tilt.

Sublime is too simple of a word to describe this music.   Sinatra’s crooning combined with Jobim’s guitar work and Portugese vocals on “Girl from Ipanema”  just ooze style and class. The tuxedos certainly add to the atmosphere. Just amazing stuff.

I have to say though that it’s still shocking to see Sintra dragging on a cigarette right on stage

“Girl from Ipanema” kicks in at about 4:40 (total length of about 6:30).

I completely forgot to write about the second garden plot I put in. I planted three kinds of corn with seed from Vermont Bean Seed Company. My daughter and I planted:

• Silver King Hybrid white sweet corn
• Incredible Hybrid yellow sweet corn
• Seneca Dancer Hybrid bicolor sweet corn

We also planted three different kinds of beans from Cooks Garden:

• Emerite pole beans
• Royal Burgundy Bush beans
• Filet Nickel bush beans

I also planted the Cook’s Custom carrot blend and yellow sweet spanish hybrid onions from Vermont Bean Seed.

Thats it for the garden this year. I’ve had enough planting fun for one year

We didn’t get Indianapolis-level rains this past weekend but we did end up having about 3 inches fall over the weekend with nary a break for things to dry out a bit. It really had me thinking about how I would cope if I was utterly dependent on those vegetables to make it through the year.

For all the complaining the local foods people (and I consider myself one) do about the industrialized food system and it’s impact on the way people live their lives the rains gave me something to think about. I’ve had great expectations for the garden this year, maybe expectations that are far too large given my greenhorn gardener status. As the water was slowly creeping up on my garden plots I was getting pretty upset and in a proportion far greater than the real importance of that food to my life.

I want to be more responsible for what goes on my table. I want to know the place it comes from. I don’t want it to have lots of mileage on it before it hits my table. I want my kids to know where their food is coming from and have a hand in actually providing it for themselves. The reality though is that these are all the thoughts of someone who can afford to have such ideals because in reality my life, nor the life of my family, is dependent on that food. What if it were though?

If that water would have come up just a bit further the ground where the plants were growing would have been over-saturated. That soil doesn’t drain all that well (one of the things I’m hoping to change over the next several years) and based on my experience with the large amount of rain that fell in the Fall of last year it would have killed the plants. If I were relying on that food to eat soon, as well as to have something to put up for the Winter, I’d be in real trouble. Simply put it would have been devastating.

Maybe I’m not dependent on that food but I do have even more respect now for the people that grow the food that I am dependent on. And I’ve thought a lot the last few days about the people who are dependent on the food they grow and how such times have destroyed people’s live. It was only three inches of rain but it certainly provided a lot of food for thought.

…feel like complete shit when I get home from work every day?

Just asking…